UNIVERSE: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 (of 12) aka HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE (Errata) (Apr 1985) DC Comics
cover:
George Pérez (not actual cover)
UNIVERSE: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 (of 12) aka HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE (Errata)
Date: Apr 1985
Cover Price:
Publisher: dccomics.com
Description
Originally entitled HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE and to be a 10 issue
series, it quickly expand to 12 issue. This series was then advertised
as UNIVERSE: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, before becoming known simply as Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Dick Giordano wrote originally scheduled for "spring of 1983"
John Byrne was originally approached to draw the series
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UNIVERSE: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 aka HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE (Errata) (Spr 1983)
DC Comics
When/how/why did the name change from Universe:COIE to just COIE ??
Marv Wolfman came up with the Crisis story that would run 10 issue
series (with a 2 issue explanation special) that would clean up the DC
Universe (and it's infinite earths).
Originally
titled "History of the DC Universe", it was meant for the release of
Spring 1983. By 1984, they had decided to change the name to "Universe:
Crisis on Infinite Earths"... but eventually dropped the "Universe"
word by the time the first issue came out in 1985.
John Byrne and George Perez were approached to draw the limited series, but Byrne turned it down.
As 'history' would have it, Crisis on Infinite Earths ran for 12 issues
with a 2-issue companion prestige books called History of the DC
Universe, becoming one of the most influential series in the comic book
world.
Its sequel, Crisis on Captive Earths, would eventually became known as Legends... which John Byrne did not turn down.
UNIVERSE: CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 aka HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE (Errata) (Spr 1983)
DC Comics
Did you know that John Byrne was originally approached to draw Crisis (formerly known as History of the DC Universe and Universe)? He turned down the offer.
Byrne wrote in 2003:
"At DC, it was Crisis on Infinite Earths (a job I turned down, when it was just called The History of the DC Universe) -- and to this day there are people who say Crisis did not go far enough, or Crisis went too far -- or, somewhat after the fact, that Crisis wasn't really "necessary."
And still the dominoes fall. Crisis begat Man of Steel, and Man of Steel begat a whole syndrome. Now it seems a writer cannot begin a run on an existing series without blowing it all up and starting over. (Mea culpa? Not really. I would have been perfectly happy to do the reboot slowly, over several months, within existing continuity.)
So now we find ourselves where we are -- with DC on the verge of "needing" another Crisis,
according to many fans (simply ignoring bad stories being no longer an
option, apparently), and the current regime at M*rv*l trundling as fast
as their pudgy little legs will let them toward the kind of morass that
makes the "need" for the original Crisis seem like smoke and fairy dust."
January 20, 2003 | Wolfman's Response to Byrne/Crisis
Crisis was indeed my idea and nobody
elses. It's one of the times I can absolutely say that. After I came up
with the idea I mentioned it to Len Wein, Joe Staton, and I believe
Laurie Sutton (an editor at DC at the time) who were all going to
Pittsburgh with me on the same train.
After it was pitched to DC, it is
possible (though I have no memory of this) that editor-in-chief Dick
Giordano or someone other than me might have looked around for artists.
George was not expected to draw the comic because he was busy on
Titans, but after I told him about it he asked to do it. Once he did
there was never any reason to look elsewhere as nobody could have done
it better.
January 12, 2003 | Meanwhile... (1983)
From Dick Giordano
MEANWHILE… (Feb 1983)
You may have heard that DC is planning
to publish a maxi-series that will attempt to more neatly define the DC
universe in an exciting adventure yarn that will span 12 issues.
Tentatively titled "The History of the DC Universe", current plans are
for the first issue to appear in the spring of 1983.
…
DC/Marvel team-ups, JLA/Avengers is pretty well set for the summer. A second Titans/X-Men set for Christmas.
And the end result of all this? At DC, it was Crisis on Infinite Earths (a job I turned down, when it was just called The History of the DC Universe) -- and to this day there are people who say Crisis did not go far enough, or Crisis went too far -- or, somewhat after the fact, that Crisis wasn't really "necessary."
And still the dominoes fall. Crisis begat Man of Steel, and Man of Steel begat a whole syndrome. Now it seems a writer cannot begin a run on an existing series without blowing it all up and starting over. (Mea culpa? Not really. I would have been perfectly happy to do the reboot slowly, over several months, within existing continuity.)
So now we find ourselves where we are -- with DC on the verge of "needing" another Crisis,
according to many fans (simply ignoring bad stories being no longer an
option, apparently), and the current regime at M*rv*l trundling as fast
as their pudgy little legs will let them toward the kind of morass that
makes the "need" for the original Crisis seem like smoke and fairy dust.
Re: History of the DC Universw
12/30/02 04:49:10 PM
Wow, I don't remember it being 3 issues
at all, but I do have a vague memory of the timeline. Why that went
away, who knows? Originally, the History was supposed to be the last
two issues (11&12) of Crisis (The History of the DC Universe was
Crisis' original name, by the way). But Crisis expanded in size -
though not content. It just took more pages than originally planned to
tell the story I had previously outlined for ten issues. By the time we
realized that we'd need all twelve issues and that History would have
to be a separate book, Crisis was selling so well the approval of the
History spinoff was instantly approved.
As for why the timeline never happened, as I say, I don't remember.
Let's see, memory being off, I'll do my
best. I believe I knew early on - after I roughly plotted all 12 issues
but before I completely committed to the plots - that I had to make
changes. The ending of the series was the SAME execpt for the idea that
the heroes NEVER went to the beginning of time and therefore they were
affected by the time change, too. This would mean the ONLY person who
knew the worlds had collapsed would have been Psycho Pirate and he was
nuts. But everything else was the same.
The series are supposed to be ten issues with a two issue History
of DC to explain the new history. But the STORY ran longer than I
anticipated (even with George drawing 127 panels per page). Even if the
end didn't have to be changed so the heroes remembered the events, it
still would have run the full 12 issues. being the first of its kind it
was impossible to fully anticipate everything I needed to fit into the
issues.
I still think the ending doesn't work as
is but I think considering what needed to be done it was done the best
it could be. I just saw the dominoes falling and knew if anyone
remembered the Crisis the characters be talking about it for years to
come, which negated the need to make the change in the first place. And
that is exactly what happened.
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